Brain Function and Oscillations

by W. J. Freeman These two volumes on "Brain Oscillations" appear at a most opportune time. As the "Decade of the Brain" draws to its close, brain science is coming to terms with its ultimate problem: understanding the mechanisms by which the immense number of neurons in the human brain interact to produce the higher cognitive functions. The ideas, concepts, methods, interpretations and examples, which are presented here in voluminous detail by a world-class authority in electrophysiology, summarize the intellectual equipment that will be required to construct satisfactory solutions to the problem. Neuroscience is ripe for change. The last revolution of ideas took place in the middle of the century now ending, when the field took a sharp turn into a novel direction. During the preceding five decades the prevailing view, carried forward from the 19th century, was that neurons are the carriers of nerve energy, either in chemical or electrical forms (Freeman, 1995). That point of view was enormously productive in terms of coming to understand the chemical basis for synaptic transmission, the electrochemistry of the ac tion potential, the ionic mechanisms of membrane currents and gates, the functional neuroanatomy that underlies the hierarchy of reflexes, and the neural fields and'their resonances that support Gestalt phenomena. No bet ter testimony can be given of the power of the applications of this approach than to point out that it provides the scientific basis for contemporary neu rology, neuropsychiatry, and brain imaging.

This book not only covers exhaustively EEG and MEG measurements, but it is unique in also offering a detailed analysis of integrative neurophysiology based on the physics of dynamical systems.

Klappentext

This book establishes a brain theory based on neural oscillations with a temporal relation to a well defined event. New findings about oscillations at the cellular level show striking parallels to EEG and MEG measurements. The authors embrace both the level of single neurons and that of the brain as a whole, showing how this approach advance our knowledge about the functional significance of the brain's electrical activity. They are related to sensory and cognitive tasks, leading towards an "integrative neurophysiology". The book will appeal to scientists and graduate students.

Inhalt
0. Prologue.- I. Foundations.- 1. Brain Dynamics and Brain Codes.- 2. Electrical Signals from the Brain.- 3. The Brain: Sensory and Cognitive Pathways.- 4. Brain Dynamics Research Program.- 5. Wavelet Analysis of Brain Waves.- 6. Phase Locking of Oscillatory Responses: An Informative Approach for Studying Evoked Brain Activity.- 7. Resonance Phenomena in the Brain, Physical Systems, and Nature.- II. Renaissance of the EEG and Oscillations.- 8. Event-Related Oscillations in the Brain.- 9. Correlation Between Unit Activity and Activity of Neural Populations.- 10. Chaos in Brain Function.- III. Resonance as the Basic Mechanism of Oscillatory Responses.- 11. Brain Synergetics: Frequency Locking of EEG: Order Out of Chaos.- 12. Major Operating Rhythms (MOR) Control the Shape and Time Course of Evoked Potentials.- 13. Oscillatory Brain Responses: Changes with Development and Aging.- 14. Brain Response Susceptibility.- 15. The Evoked Potential Manifests a Superposition of Event-Related Oscillations.- 16. Multiple Sclerosis: Break of the Alpha Response.- 17. Brain Feynman Diagrams.- 18. Oscillatory Components of Evoked Potentials are Real Brain Responses Related to Function.- 19. Conclusion.- References.- Author-Index.